There’s a moment in MJ the Musical where the King of Pop tells a prying reporter: “I want to keep this about my music.”
Over the last four years, as the jukebox musical has swept through the US, London and Hamburg, netting four Tony awards and more than US$245m to date on Broadway alone, the debate that has followed it has mirrored that which followed the bombshell allegations aired in the Emmy-winning 2019 documentary Leaving Neverland: can we separate Michael Jackson’s impeccable musical legacy from his deeply tarnished public image?
In the wake of Leaving Neverland, long-term fans reckoned with their relationship with Jackson’s music, as radio stations in Canada, New Zealand and Australia dropped him from their playlists.
Six years on, as MJ the Musical premieres in Australia, audience members might also ponder the ethics of buying a ticket to a show that is not only sanctioned by Jackson’s estate, but a source of revenue for it. Two production companies that were owned by the singer at the time of his death and are now owned by his estate are contesting allegations of child sexual abuse by the late artist as part of a civil suit, set to go to trial next year – and the attorney working for the alleged victims has described the musical as “propaganda” that “adds injury to his survivors”.
MJ, which opens in Sydney this weekend, seems to believe you can separate the music from the man – or at least, from his baggage.
When the Guardian reviewed MJ on Broadway, we described the musical, which is made in cooperation with the late singer’s estate and co-produced by its co-executors, as “a rollicking parade of hits, vocal high points, and a sanitised spin through Jackson’s life that sketches demons without filling them in”, and an exercise in “compartmentalization”.
Set in 1992 during rehearsals for Jackson’s Dangerous tour, MJ sidesteps the lurid tabloid controversies – including allegations that he abused his pet chimpanzee Bubbles, speculation about his changing appearance and plastic surgery, and his death from a cocktail of prescription drugs in 2009. It also ignores multiple allegations of child molestation made against the star over three decades, including the claims at the centre of a forthcoming civil trial.
The omissions can be justified by the plot’s narrow timeframe: MJ is set before the first claims of child molestation were aired in 1993, and doesn’t reference the settlement Jackson made in 1994 with the boy and family at the centre of those allegations. Nor does it mention Jackson’s arrest in 2003 on charges of child molestation.
Jackson was acquitted in a 2005 trial and Jackson’s estate has vehemently denied all allegations of sexual abuse made against the star since his death. However some have found the show’s failure to even acknowledge this significant part of the star’s story discomforting, particularly in the wake of Leaving Neverland, in which Wade Robson and James Safechuck aired fresh allegations that Jackson sexually abused them when they were children. (A sequel to Leaving Neverland will be released later this month.)
“Can we really sit in a theatre and pretend his music can live on without scrutiny?” asked Guardian reviewer Anya Ryan when MJ went to the West End. “Some might be able to separate Jackson’s art from the artist. But as [performer Myles Frost] took his final bow and the audience leaped to their feet, I felt queasy – bad, even.”
The Michael Jackson estate did not reply to the Guardian’s request for comment, nor did Michael Cassel Group, who are bringing the show to Australia. But in an 2019 interview with the New York Times, conducted while the show was still a work in progress, the musical’s book writer, Lynn Nottage, and director and choreographer, Christopher Wheeldon, discussed the complications of making MJ the Musical after the documentary had aired.
“You can’t watch the documentary without being profoundly disturbed by it, but again, we’re not judge and jury,” Wheeldon said. “[Our role is to] paint a balanced picture. Yes, lean into the complexities, lean into the darkness, but also recognise the great amount of music and film and choreography that Michael left behind.”
“We’re not journalists,” Nottage added. “Have I had restless, sleepless nights? Absolutely, and I probably will continue until the day we open.”
The show did open, and following its premiere on Broadway in 2022, Wheeldon told the Washington Post that after grappling with the ethical considerations, the pair “felt we needed to look at this as making a piece of entertainment first and foremost”. The estate did not dictate the show’s content, he said. “We ended up telling the story we wanted to tell. We were not told what we had to do.”
Robson and Safechuck’s allegations are the subject of a joint suit against MJJ Productions and MJJ Ventures – owned by his estate – that is due to go to trial in November 2026. Robson alleged that Jackson abused him from age seven to 14. Safechuck alleged that Jackson abused him over the course of four years, starting in 1988 when he was 10. Both men allege that company employees did not adequately protect them from Jackson, helping to coordinate visits and ensuring Jackson could be alone with them.
It’s not known whether either man has seen MJ, and they declined the Guardian’s request for comment. But their attorney John C Carpenter, who says he has seen the show, accused it of being “propaganda” engineered to make money. “It’s entertainment, not the truth,” he told Guardian Australia. “They skirt the entire issue [the allegations of child molestation] and try to make Michael Jackson look like a saint.”
Lawyers for Jackson’s companies and his estate maintain Jackson was innocent and have previously alleged he was targeted for his name and money.
“We remain fully confident that Michael is innocent of these allegations, which are contrary to all credible evidence and independent corroboration,” a lawyer for Jackson’s estate said in a statement, after a 2023 decision from the appeal’s court which allowed the men’s claims to progress.
The estate receives “grand rights” (AKA dramatic performance rights) revenue from MJ the Musical; it likely gets a producer’s cut too, as estate co-executors are two of the show’s three major producers. As of May 2023, they had recouped their initial investment in the show.
The Jackson estate “is free to try to make money off of the intellectual property made by Michael Jackson during his lifetime”, Carpenter said. “But doing it at the expense of misrepresenting and discounting the truth that he abused and hurt other people adds injury to his survivors … You can imagine how difficult it might be for other people to celebrate your abuser. That’s hurtful.”
Alison Geale, CEO of Bravehearts, an Australian organisation representing adult survivors of childhood sexual abuse, worries about the message that MJ sends. “It’s a Tony award-winning musical that’s had record-breaking ticket sales. And for victim-survivors, not just of Michael Jackson, but those others looking on, it’s as if it [the alleged sexual abuse] didn’t happen,” she says.
“When victim-survivors come forward, there are many roadblocks to disclosure, and one of them is, ‘Am I going to be believed?’ And if you can imagine that on a scale where it involves Michael Jackson. Whether Michael Jackson is guilty or innocent in the public’s eye, that is a worldwide question everyone has an answer for – so they [Robson and Safechuck] are in the middle of also not being believed by so many.”
In Leaving Neverland, Robson describes his first encounter with Jackson, seeing Thriller on VHS when he was five years old: “Everything changed for me. The music, I couldn’t help but move to it, it kind of set me on fire … I slowly but surely started plastering my walls with images of Michael … [I was] going to sleep, waking up in Michael Jackson land.”
Geale, from Bravehearts, urges Australians weighing up whether to buy a ticket to consider the victim-survivor perspective. “[The music] is part of the man and part of the machine that, from a victim-survivor’s perspective, allegedly enabled grooming and offending,” she says. “People attending the musical have the option to separate the man from the accusations. And victim-survivors don’t have that option. The man and the music and the crime are all linked for them.”
MJ offers a whirlwind tour of “Michael Jackson land”: the music, the moves, the almost mythic artist. As it opens in Sydney, Australian audiences have a choice: do they want to take the trip?
• Information and support for anyone affected by rape or sexual abuse issues is available from the following organisations. In Australia, support is available at 1800Respect (1800 737 732). In the UK, Rape Crisis offers support on 0808 500 2222. In the US, Rainn offers support on 800-656-4673. Other international helplines can be found at ibiblio.org/rcip/internl.html
